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Rating: 4.25 out of 5
I don’t know much about autism. I am not going to sit here and write a paragraph about it. In entertainment, the two places where autism stands out are the film, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and the ending of the T.V. show, St. Elsewhere. I heard that ending was a nice twist. Even though I can’t speak about autism, I can speak about what it means to have a brother. My younger brother is not autistic, but we do have that brotherly love. When I need him, he is there for me and vice versa. I wouldn’t trade my brother up for anyone. While watching Rain Man, the main character soon learns what it means to have brotherly love for an autistic brother. Even if your brother is different from you and can’t communicate effectively, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t show him love and appreciation.
Directed by Barry Levinson and written by Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass. Rain Man begins with Charles Sanford “Charlie” Babbit (Cruise). Charlie is an a**hole and one of the most self-centered, egotistical L.A. automobile dealer. In short, once again, he is an a**hole. Charlie believes he is some hotshot until he messes up a deal and becomes significantly in debt. One day, he learns that his estranged father has passed away. Not even shedding a tear, Charlie believes that he is about to hit it rich from his inheritance and be able to pay off his debts. During the will reading, he learns that his father left him the old Buick he thought he stole when he was younger. The remainder of his estate of $3 million went into a trust fund to be distributed to someone. Charlie is livid and goes on some rant that he believes was the final way of his father sticking it to him. Charlie decides that the best way to handle this is to go all the way to Cleveland and demand for “his” share of the money. He soon learns that the money is going to the Walbrook Institute and that he meets his unknown brother Raymond, an autistic savant and lives in a world of his own. Charlie gets the bright idea of “kidnapping” his own brother and ransoming for his share of the money. During their cross-country trip, Charlie soon learns that his brother is truly different in many ways, but through it, he starts seeing that he is a very selfish person, and soon understanding develops between them.
First, I want to get the characters and acting out of the way. I absolutely HATED Tom Cruise’s character, Charlie Babbitt. Cruise played Charlie to definite annoyance as the dude was a complete asshole, dick, arrogant, selfish, and manipulative person. There have been some people to get under my skin, and the first five minutes, I hated Charlie. It is one thing to complain about your dad giving away HIS fortune to a place he believes will be helpful. Yet, this dude decided that he was entitled to the money because he is in debt for whatever scheme and decides to kidnap his brother from a mental institute and ransom him for half of the money. What a prick! Cruise played him intensely because he was egotistical. Don’t give me that crock of shit when you wanted to spend more time with your brother at the end of the film. After he saves your ass with counting cards, then you wanted to try to take care of him but had no freaking idea what to do. You still a selfish asshole.
Now the person who needs to be applauded in this film is Dustin Hoffman as Raymond “Ray” Babbitt, who is an autistic savant and whose existence Charlie was unaware of. Hoffman was great as Ray because he showed a person who was set in his own ways and loved to do routines but had the genius intellect of counting cards or doing anything mathematical. Hoffman did everything amazingly as he wanted to watch his People’s Court, have a specific meal at certain times, and when he saw something was like NOPE! The best scene was when he farted in the phone booth. That was nasty and funny at the same time. Hoffman won the Academy Award for Best Actor. It is ironic because he is the star of the movie, but I would’ve pegged him as Best Supporting Actor, but hey, a win is a win.
Now for the whole story, it is really good to watch because we see the growth between two people, but you knew what was going to happen towards the end. I would say that it interest me, but it really didn’t. I think I was more intrigued with the whole concept on autistic and a savant. The story brings to light how individuals with autism should be treated and debunking many myths about them. It was interesting because you see how this group of people like certain routines or have difficulty communicating or even expressing themselves. It was all fascinating, and then the number crunching. I wish I could count cards.
This is supposed to be a movie of two brothers coming together after realizing that one of them exists. The film does a good job by showing that through a journey together, one sees the other as a person. What I hated was that Charlie only realizes the importance of his brother after he wins him money. I feel like this movie could’ve been better if Charlie wasn’t such pain and just wanted to spend time really getting to know his brother. I felt like the story could’ve been far better.
Now the main thing is this film has been HEAVILY parodied in other movies or talked about, from The Simpsons to Family Guy to the movie Tropic Thunder and the Hangover. The iconic coming down the escalator scene is one thing or how numbers come to Ray so easily. Now one thing is that from Tropic Thunder, they talk about mentally unstable people and it. The whole talk about being mentally unstable was offensive and seems to miss the mark on what these individuals go through.
Yet, the movie does bring to light many things that make you think and want to research. One is how autistic individuals have a particular system and wanting to do their own thing. Ray likes to be on a specific schedule and gets really agitated when he is off his schedule, as in watching the People’s Court or even having particular food. It seems like you couldn’t hug the person, or they freak out. Another item was Ray knowing all the crashes on flights and didn’t want to get on or seeing a car crash and rather walk than use the highway.
Now the best scene and the one that is known the most is the card counting scene. Ray went H.A.M. on the blackjack table and won over $86000 from the table. It is great because you can see the wheels in Ray’s mind. You can see the numbers coming in and bringing in that bag of money. Another great scene is the phone booth and farting scene. I find it ironic how Charlie mistreats his brother, and his brother gives him a good one in the phone booth, and he has to stand in the smell for a while. You got crop dusted fool.
Rain Man is a very good movie. Not an all-time great film but one that you will enjoy. Hoffman is fantastic in his role as Ray, and Cruise is good but still a dick in this film. The iconic scene of the brothers coming down the escalator is a highlight, along with the card counting scene. Watch this film and have fun with it and maybe learn about how to really treat people that are different from you.
